So after reading somewhere in the neighborhood of 3,500,000 posts on carb balancing, I made up a balancer out of pegboard, 1/4" OD tubing, push-lock connectors and automatic transmission fluid. Filling it up with ATF was a bit of an adventure, as it leaked like a sieve until I appropriately pushed the hoses in. I was able to use mouth pressure to suck out all the air bubbles.

I snagged two massively long pairs of pliers from the Home Depot to push on the hoseworks to the nipples under the carbs - these were only $9! After warming the bike and adjusting the idle, saw that my carbs were pretty far out. It took 20-ish minutes of tweaking and fiddling but at the back-end, I got them very precisely balanced. The bike seems to be idling nicely and the snaps off idle with authority.

The real test will come when I get the bike on the road, and put it under load.

I bought the 17" motion-pro 90-degree screwdriver to adjust the pilot screws yesterday. I should adjust them this weekend.

 

Good to know!
I need to try this soon - when the weather gets a little warmer in Toronto I'll give it a go.

Have you ever done a valve clearance check as well?

 

one of these kits is a real time saver. Motorcycle 4 Cylinder Carburetor Synchronizer Tuner | eBay
ive used a manometer a few times and its a complete PITA. with the gauges once you get them hooked up and the bike warmed up, it only takes about 5 minutes to get them spot on.

 

I haven't done a clearance check on a motorcycle - I can only imagine what a barrel of laugh that must be. I have set the valve lash on many cars, and would not relish working in the limited space of a motorcycle head to get that done.

I assume you adjust lash with shims, correct? I believe you'd have to have an assortment of those bad boys available, and some quite excellent feeler gauges too, huh?

I may take this on in another 5000 miles as I've heard these Honda motors will run well without much adjustment for the first half of their lives.

 

So I tested - then binned - the silly air-solenoid kerbabble/emissions-compliance/performance-killer.

The stupid 5,000 RPM drivability problem is gone. I was discouraged when it was there after carb rebuild, but I had not researched this problem well enough to determine what was causing the trouble. I fixed the problem using the Kuroshio Method, and I adjusted the Pilot screws.

The bike idles like a car now, starts instantly hot or cold, and runs like new.

YAYY!!

One comment about the pilot screw adjustment - whoever created that deserves a horsewhipping! What kind of moron makes a system that is THAT difficult to get to and adjust?

 

Totally agree about the pilot screw. Something so vital shouldn't be such a pain to get to.

 

I never understood the point of those silly little intakes. The solenoid is only supposed to keep them open under 12-15 mph. How long does anyone stay at those speeds?!?

Glad it helped FOG